Visions of future computing in residential settings often come with assumptions of seamless, well-functioning, properly configured devices and network connectivity. In the near term, however, processes of setup, maintenance, and troubleshooting are fraught with difficulties; householders regularly report these tasks as confusing, frustrating, and unpleasant. I conducted a series of empirical studies examining both the sources of digital complexity in residential settings well as how people cope with these complexities. Grounded in this fieldwork, I designed a technology probe called Tech Clips. Tech Clips facilitates the sharing of technology-related information by and for people within one's social network. I then conducted a long-term, real-world deployment study in which ten families used the software, while simultaneously completing a series of common computing setup and maintenance tasks. Based on the results of this study, I provide both a rich description of home technology usage and maintenance practices, as well as design implications for software systems that facilitate help-giving between family and friends. The contributions of this research are (1) empirical studies of how lay people understand and cope with vexing technology problems in environments lacking technical experts; (2) the development of a software system to facilitate technical advice sharing; (3) deployment of this system in real-world settings; and (4) recommendations for the design of future tools for facilitating technical help-giving between family and friends.

With the ubiquity of broadband, wireless and mobile networking and the diversity of user-driven social networks and social channels, we are entering an information age where people and vehicles are connected at all times, and information and influence are diffused continuously through not only traditional authoritative media such as news papers, TV and radio broadcasting, but also user-driven new channels for disseminating information and diffusing influence. Social network users and mobile travelers can influence and be influenced by the social and spatial connectivity that they share through an impressive array of social and spatial channels, ranging from friendship, activity, professional or social groups to spatial, location-aware, and mobility aware events. In this dissertation research, we argue that spatial alarms and activity-based social networks are two fundamentally new types of information and influence diffusion channels. Such new channels have the potential of enriching our professional experiences and our personal life quality in many unprecedented ways. For instance, spatial alarms enable people to share their experiences or disseminate certain points of interest by leaving location-dependent greetings, tips or graffiti and location dependent tour guide to their friends, colleagues and family members. Through social networks, people can influence their friends and colleagues by the activities they have engaged, such as reviews and blogs on certain events or products. More interestingly, the power of such spatial and social diffusion of information and influence can go far beyond our physical reach. People can utilize user-generated social and spatial channels as effective means to disseminate information and propagate influence to a much wider and possibly unknown range of audiences and recipients at any time and in any location. A fundamental challenge in embracing such new and exciting ways of information diffusion is to develop effective and scalable models and algorithms as enabling technology and building blocks. This dissertation research is dedicated towards this ultimate objective with three novel and unique contributions. First, we develop an activity driven and self-configurable social influence model and a suite of computational algorithms to compute and rank social network nodes in terms of activity-based influence diffusion over social network topologies. By activity driven we mean that the real impact of social influence and the speed of such influence propagation should be computed based on the type, the amount and the time window of the activities performed by a social network node in addition to its social connectivity (social network topology). By self-configurable we mean that the diffusion efficiency and effectiveness are dynamically adapted based on the settings and tunings of multiple spatial and social parameters such as diffusion context, diffusion location, diffusion rate, diffusion energy (heat), diffusion coverage and diffusion incentives (e.g., reward points), to name a few. We evaluate our approach through datasets collected from Facebook, Epinions, and DBLP datasets. Our experimental results show that our activity based social influence model outperforms existing topology-based social influence model in terms of effectiveness and quality with respect to influence ranking and influence coverage computation. Second, we further enhance our activity based social influence model along two dimensions. At first, we use a probabilistic diffusion model to capture the intrinsic properties of social influence such that nodes in a social network may have the choice of whether to participate in a social influence propagation process. We examine threshold based approach and independent probabilistic cascade based approach to determine whether a node is active or inactive in each round of influence diffusion. Secondly, we introduce incentives using multi-scale reward points, which are popularly used in many business settings. We then examine the effectiveness of reward points based incentives in stimulating the diffusion of social influences. We show that given a set of incentives, some active nodes may become more active whereas some inactive nodes may become active. Such dynamics changes the composition of the top-k influential nodes computed by activity-based social influence model. We make several interesting observations: First, popular users who are high degree nodes and have many friends are not necessarily influential in terms of spawning new activities or spreading ideas and information. Second, most influential users are more active in terms of their participation in the social activities and interactions with their friends in the social network. Third, multi-scale reward points based incentives can be effective to both inactive nodes and active nodes. Third, we introduce spatial alarms as the basic building blocks for location-dependent information sharing and influence diffusion. People can share and disseminate their location based experiences and points of interest to their friends and colleagues in the form of spatial alarms. Spatial alarms are triggered and delivered to the intended subscribers only when the subscribers move into the designated geographical vicinity of the spatial alarms, enabling delivering and sharing of relevant information and experience at the right location and the right time with the right subscribers. We studied how to use locality filters and subscriber filers to enhance the spatial alarm processing using traditional spatial indexing techniques. In addition, we develop a fast spatial alarm indexing structure and algorithms, called Mondrian Tree, and demonstrate that the Mondrian tree enabled spatial alarm system can significantly outperform existing spatial indexing based solutions such as R-tree, $k$-d tree, Quadtree. This dissertation consists of six chapters. The first chapter introduces the research hypothesis. We describe our activity-based social influence model in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 presents the probabilistic social influence model powered with rewards incentives. We introduce spatial alarms and the basic system architecture for spatial alarm processing in Chapter 4. We describe the design of our Mondrian tree index of spatial alarms and alarm free regions in Chapter 5. In Chapter 6 we conclude the dissertation with a summary of the unique research contributions and a list of open issues closely relevant to the research problems and solution approaches presented in this dissertation.

<p>One of the most important conditions for effective performance and successful business operation is effective use of IT by organization members. Because of this demand in organizations, adaptation to IT-induced changes is one of the important challenges that organizations face with it. Technical-advice network has been used in order to better understand the effects of interpersonal communications on employee’s adaptation to IT-induced changes. In the other words the main focus of this research is to understand the effects of technical-advice network on individual IT-adaptation.</p><p>The research is carried out by the survey method in a unit of an organization with 51 employees. Two structural characteristics of the network have been examined as antecedents to adaptability. The results of study show that the strength of ties and density of network have positive effects on individual adaptation to IT-induced change. The research provided interesting results about the effects of technical-advice networks on individual adaptation to IT-induced changes.</p>

<p>The aim of this essay was to describe the power elite of the Swedish town Karlshamn, and its influences on the local political process before the realization of the narrow-gauge railway Karlshamn-Wislanda-Jernväg. During the mid 19th century, a revolutionary period began in the Swedish pre-industrial epoch. The political and institutional regulatory frameworks were disassembled and restructured, away from protectionism and centrally controlled administration, for the benefit of free trade, local self-government and liberalism. The changes were carried through during times marked by a drastic increasing native population and upcoming demands for adjustments to meet the growth of the industrial-, trade- and labour markets. An essential industrial development factor was the building of the national railway network, which started after some important decisions in the Swedish Riksdag during the 1850´s. In close connection with governmental initiatives to build national trunk lines, processes on the local political arenas were initiated to rapidly obtain connections to these planned main lines. Focus in this study was put on the town Karlshamn 1855-1874 and the main document sources that were examined consisted of protocols and petitions from errands on the local political arenas, f.e. the town council. The material was methodically revised by means of a network- and field analysis. Through this analytical method it was possible to confirm the power elite actors, their potential networks and reproduced groups. The results point to the importance of the formal networks an their contributions to the accumulation of social capital. Above all, this was significant for the most important individuals in the process, the local wholesale dealers Edvard Ferdinand Meyer and Carl Gustaf Berg. The process also resulted in a reproduction of local political power, and the dominance on the political field was continued. All through the twenty-year lasting process, the railway issue became a possibility for the local elite, with representatives from the trading companies, to mobilize the political decisions in the direction of continuous economic development, and enlargement of the town´s commercial area. In the town of Karlshamn, with a stagnating economy, the new infrastructure, beside the connection to the main national lines, constituted a lifeline towards continuous financial expansion and competitiveness.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-63). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis supervisor: Judy Polumbaum. Includes bibliographic references (p. 232-241).

Thesis (D. Miss.)--Western Seminary, Portland, Or., 2000. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-212).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2009. / A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Centre for Educational Research, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.

Narkotika- och alkoholmissbruk är ett hälsoproblem i hela världen och nyktra missbrukare är en utsatt grupp i samhället. Vid missbruk är det inte bara intaget av narkotikan eller alkoholen som medför skada. Hela livssituationen kan bli drabbad, inte minst kontakten med vänner och familj. För att hålla sig nykter, återanpassa sig till samhället och leva ett hälsosamt liv finns det många faktorer som är betydelsefulla. Syftet med studien var därför att undersöka nyktra missbrukares upplevelser av socialt stöd, fritidsaktiviteter samt utanförskap och delaktighet i samhället. En empirisk kvalitativ studie har gjorts genom semistrukturerade intervjuer för att besvara syftet om upplevelser av dessa faktorer. Insamlad data har transkriberats och analyserats med hjälp av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet har kategoriserats och visade att nyktra missbrukare känner avsaknad av socialt stöd, hinder i att utföra fritidsaktiviteter samt utanförskap i samhället. En önskan om att kunna utöva intressen, ha bra vänner och känna en gemenskap fanns. Faktorerna upplevdes som viktiga för att bibehålla en nykterhet. / Drug and alcohol abuse is a health problem worldwide. Alcohol and drug abuse can effect ones entire life, sober abusers are a vulnerable group in the society. To stay sober, or come back to the society and live a healthy life, might be influenced by many factors. The aim of the study was to examine sober alcohol and drug abusers’ experiences of social support, leisure time activities, exclusion and participation in the society. A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews was used to address the aim of the study. The content analysis of four interviews showed that sober abusers experience the lack of social support. Furthermore, they encounter difficulties to participate in and experience alienation in society. The participants considered that social support, leisure activities, exclusion and participation in society was important to them. Finally, there was a desire from sober abusers to carry out interests of their own, and feel a sense of belonging to the community.